Will Lynch trial: Defense alleges prosecutorial misconduct

Will Lynch trial: Defense alleges prosecutorial misconduct

Prosecutors in the San Jose priest-beating trial have said they pursued the case despite the accused man's understandable motive -- retaliating against the cleric he said brutally molested him as a child -- because it's the right thing to do.

No matter how good the motive, they said, victims cannot be allowed to mete out justice in defiance of the rule of law.

But now, lawyers for the priest's alleged assailant, Will Lynch, are filing a second motion for a mistrial, claiming among other grounds that prosecutor Vicki Gemetti violated the rule of law herself -- by withholding evidence and lying about it.

Gemetti told the lawyers and judge she did not know what the victim and star witness -- the Rev. Jerold Lindner -- would say in court when she asked if he molested Lynch and his then-4-year-old brother on a camping trip in the Santa Cruz Mountains in the mid-1970s. The defense had asked for the information in multiple discovery requests right up until Wednesday, the first day of trial, so the lawyers could prepare to cross-examine him. Gemetti that morning "stated she had not discussed it (with the priest) and that she had no idea what he was going to say," according to the motion.

Gemetti also told the jury the same thing, saying, "The evidence will show he molested the defendant all those years ago. What he'll say about that, I don't know. I expect he will proba...